


Rest Your Arms And Rest Your Legs

by ShyAudacity



Series: she broke your throne and she cut your hair [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Abusive Kate, Alive Claudia Stilinski, Alternate Universe - Human, Angst with a Happy Ending, Derek Hale & Stiles Stilinski are the Same Age, Derek Hale Needs a Hug, F/M, Hurt Derek, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Sexual Assault, M/M, Nightmares, Panic Attacks, Pining, Post Hale Fire, Protective Stiles, Slow Build Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski, Young Derek, its not as obvious though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-16
Updated: 2017-01-16
Packaged: 2018-09-17 21:22:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9346247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShyAudacity/pseuds/ShyAudacity
Summary: Stiles glares daggers at her as he watches her leaves, then locks the door behind her. It’s a little early, but he decides that he’s had enough excitement for one day. Next, he goes back to the boy, and holds out a towel to him. The boy gives him a confused look.“Dude, you’re dripping water all over my mom’s floor.”He takes the towel and starts to dry himself off. Once he’s done, he holds out his hand.“I’m Stiles by the way.”“I’m Derek.” He replies softly.“Do you mind me asking who that was? I totally understand if you don’t want to tell me, but some insight to what just happened would be nice.”“Her name is Kate, she’s my uncle’s girlfriend.” He says quietly, playing with his hands.“She’s not very nice to you, is she?” Derek shakes his head. “Well, you hungry?”ORBasically Stiles' point of view of Derek's unfortunate abuse (this is a companion fic, but it doesn't really matter which one you read first but i'd love if you read both).





	

**Author's Note:**

> As I said in the summary, this is a companion fic, but it doesn't really matter which order you read them in, they follow the exact same timeline, very minor differences.

_Twenty more minutes. Twenty minutes until I can go home._

Stiles is running his mother’s café by himself today. Normally he doesn’t mind, but it’s been a slow day and he is beyond bored. He ran out of things to clean an hour ago, and he can’t count the safe until after he’s locked up for the day. The bell above the door rings and his response is robotic and immediate.

“Hi, how can I help you?”

He looks up and thinks _Oh my god, he’s beautiful._ A boy that’s not much older than him is standing in the doorway looking utterly mortified. Stiles recognizes him from history class, but can’t think of his name. Damon? Daniel?

“What?” he says, looking confused.

“I said, hi, how can I help you?”

The boy keeps turning his head to look behind himself, it makes Stiles think that something might be wrong.

“Are you okay?” Stiles asks.  

“I uh- I n-need…” He scrambles to find his words. “Someone’s a-after me, I-.”

Stiles has seen stuff like this before, heard the stories from his dad. A kid runs off needing somewhere to hide and no one bothers to help them. He won’t let that happen for this kid.

“Do you need somewhere to hide?”

The kid nods like his life depends on it. Stiles is quick to usher him behind the counter and get him into a crouching position. Mere seconds after this happens, the door opens and an angry looking blonde woman comes in looking as angry as he’s ever seen.

“Hi, how can I help you?”

“I’m looking for someone.” The woman says, out of the corner of his eye he sees the boy beneath him flinch at the sound.

“Ma’am a lot of people have come in here today. Can you describe them to me? Maybe a picture? A mugshot works too.” Stiles says sarcastically.

“Look kid I don’t have time for any of your crap right now, I have a runaway teenager to find. Is there a manager I could speak with?”

“Well, my mom is the manager, but she isn’t here right now. So you’re stuck with me for the time being. Unless of course you’d like to file a missing person’s report, then you can make a call to my father, the Sheriff.” The words roll off of Stiles’ tongue effortlessly.

“No,” The woman huffs. “That won’t be necessary.”

Stiles glares daggers at her as he watches her leaves, then locks the door behind her. It’s a little early, but he decides that he’s had enough excitement for one day. Next, he goes back to the boy, and holds out a towel to him. The boy gives him a confused look.

“Dude, you’re dripping water all over my mom’s floor.”

He takes the towel and starts to dry himself off. Once he’s done, he holds out his hand.

“I’m Stiles by the way.”

“I’m Derek.” He replies softly.

“Do you mind me asking who that was? I totally understand if you don’t want to tell me, but some insight to what just happened would be nice.”

“Her name is Kate, she’s my uncle’s girlfriend.” He says quietly, playing with his hands.

“She’s not very nice to you, is she?” Derek shakes his head. “Well, you hungry?”

*

They pull up to the house in Stiles’ beat up jeep. He kills the engine, then Stiles leads him inside, and shows him where to take off his shoes. Derek pauses when they reach the side table that has his dad’s work jacket lying on it.

“Is your dad really the Sheriff?”

“Yeah, he is. What, did you think I was lying earlier?” Stiles says with a smirk. He follows Stiles into the kitchen, and Stiles finds his mother standing in front of the stove. Whatever she’s cooking smells glorious and his mouth is already watering.

“Hey kiddo, who is this?”

“This is Derek, he’s a friend from school. He came into the café, and I decided to invite him over for dinner. I hope that’s okay.” Stiles looks over to Derek, and winks at him. He feels strangely confident, and he thinks it’s because he’s already crushing on Derek. Hard.

“Well of course that’s okay. Hi Derek, I’m Stiles’ mom, you can call me Claudia. Do you like lasagna?”

*

After dinner, Stiles offers to drive him back to his uncle’s house. During the entire ten-minute drive that it took to get there, Stiles didn’t shut up once. Not until Derek interrupted him, at least.

“Do we actually go to the same school?”

“You go to Beacon High, right?” Derek nods. “We’re in the same history class.”

Derek just nods, thanks him for dinner, then exits the jeep. Stiles watches him leave, and drives home feeling a stupid kind of happy. His best friend, Scott, notices later when they’re talking on facetime later that night.

“What’s up with you? You’re in a really good mood. I haven’t seen you smile this much in forever.” Scott told him.

“Nothing, I just made a new friend today. That’s all.”

*

The following days at school, Stiles insists that Derek sit with him and his friends. Derek agrees without complaint, and Stiles forces himself not to get too excited. _It’s just Derek,_ he tells himself, _shy, funny, beautiful Derek._   

Stiles introduces him to Scott. The floppy haired boy grins at him, then gives him a fist bump. The three of them sit, Stiles and Scott talking enthusiastically with each other while Derek mostly just listens. They’re arguing over whether Charizard or Squirtle is better, and Stiles’ heart grows two sizes inside his chest when Derek agrees with him. 

“See, Derek agrees with me! You know what, you’re being replaced, Derek is my new favorite.”

A few days later, Derek and Stiles are back at his house and they do homework. They’re doing math when he thinks of something that he’d been meaning to ask Derek since they had met.

“Why do you live with your uncle?” Stiles asks.

Derek looks up from his homework. He gives Stiles a terrified look, and he’s quick to continue his thought.

“We don’t have to talk about it, if you don’t want to, I was just wondering.”

Derek takes a deep breath before he starts. “There was an accident, at my old house, a couple months ago. One day, while I was at school, there was a gas leak in my basement and it sparked a fire. The whole things went up in flames. I was the only one that wasn’t there when it happened.”

Stiles feels his heart sink. “Wait, so, your _whole_ family, just…”

“Mom, Dad, and both of my sisters. All of them.” Derek stated softly. “I jumped around between a few different family members before I got put with Peter.” 

“I’m so sorry, Derek.” Stiles says, capturing Derek’s wrist with his hand. He rubs his thumb over the skin on the inside of his arm, it’s the best thing that he can think of as far as comfort right now. He decides to change the subject before he makes Derek anymore sad than he already is.

“One more question though, what did you get for number 3?”

Derek laughs a little, “Um, I got X equals 10.”

“Shit.” Stiles says. Derek laughs again, and Stiles is fumbling for his phone that is vibrating inside of his pocket. “Scott wants to know if we want to come over. You in?”

* 

Something about Kate makes Stiles feel uneasy. He likes her for the most part. She doesn’t get mad when he invites himself over or when he stays later he had planned. But something about her presence makes his skin crawl, makes him worried about Derek’s well-being. He knows that he’s probably overreacting, but still, he can’t help but be Nervous.

Its Saturday, more importantly its Paint Ball Saturday. The first Saturday of every month, Scott and himself go paint balling. On this particular Saturday, Derek agreed to go with them. He arrives at his house and Kate lets him in. Stiles can smell the alcohol on her breath, he doesn’t want to know what she was doing last night.

He opens the door to Derek’s room, and finds him in bed, naked.

“Dude, why are you naked?”

Derek shrugs.

“Whatever, that’s not important. Get dressed, Scott is waiting for us.”

They spend most of the day pelting each other with paint balls. After a while, it turned into a competition to see who would come out the cleanest. Derek won. They’re back at Stiles’ house, changing out of their paint covered clothes, when Scott says something to Derek.

“Dude, did that happen today?”

Stiles whips around to see what he’s is talking about. Derek’s got a bruise on his ribcage in the shape of a fist.

“What? Oh, no, I slipped in the shower a few days ago. Don’t worry about it, I’m fine.” Derek says in a rush.

Stiles doesn’t believe him, but he doesn’t feel that right now is the time to question it.

*

He’s excited. He’s excited because it’s Derek’s birthday and he brought a cup cake. It’s vanilla cake with peanut butter frosting, Derek’s favorite dessert from his mother’s café. Stiles finds the birthday boy at his locker and holds the cupcake out to him.

“Happy birthday. I hope you don’t mind; I did some snooping.”

Derek smiles and takes the cupcake from him. Stiles sees a mark on Derek’s neck and can’t stop himself from blurting out:

“Dude, is that a hickey? Did you get laid and _not tell me_?”

His eyes go unbelievably wide; he starts pulling at the collar on his shirt.  “No, no it’s n-not like that, it’s…” he trails off.

Stiles’ brain makes a connection, something he’d been thinking for weeks but was too afraid to say. “Did Kate do that to you?”

Stiles watches as Derek fumbles to find words, only turn and away from him towards his first class for the day. He follows him.

“Oh my god, Derek-.”

“Don’t, okay? I have things under control.”

“But Derek-.”

“Stiles, please.” He pleads. Derek looks him right in the eye, and Stiles decides to let him have this one. Decides he’ll let Derek take care of whatever is going on with him.

“Alright. I’ll see you at lunch.”

That afternoon, he had to work at the café before he could hang out with Scott and Derek. Luckily for him, his mom was there today, so he wasn’t completely bored. He trusted his mom more than anyone in the world. He was able to tell her just about everything. Right now, it was killing him to not tell her about Derek.

“You’re being uncharacteristically quiet,” She said to him. “Is everything okay?”

Stiles bit his lip. “Yeah, it’s just uh… its Derek’s birthday.”

“Okay? You make that sound like it’s a bad thing.”

“No, no it’s not a bad thing.” He tried to find the right words. “Most of Derek’s family died in a fire a few months ago. So I want to make sure that he has a good birthday, that’s all. Sorry for worrying you.”

It’s not what he wanted to say, but he promised.

*

“How did you get that black eye, Derek?”

“John-.” Claudia tries.

“I’m just asking.” The sheriff replies, holding his hands up. Before Derek can even open his mouth Stiles is talking for him.

“He fell down the stairs at school.” Stiles tells them through a mouth full of pizza. “His shoe laces were untied, and he nosedived right into the ground. It was quite a sight to see actually. I keep telling him to tie shoes, but he never listens. It’s a terrible habit honestly.”

Not true. Earlier that morning, Derek had told him that he’d gotten into fight with the coffee table and lost. He didn’t believe it, but he didn’t want to watch his friend squirm in front of his dad any longer. Stiles winks at him, and Derek smiles.

“Is that true, son?” John asks him.

Derek nods. “Yes, sir. I’m a klutz.”

Derek mouths a silent thank you to Stiles, and Stiles just nods.

*

They’re at a party, they being Scott, Stiles, and Derek. Derek hadn’t wanted to come, but Stiles begged until he agreed. Technically, none of them had been invited to the party, but he heard that Lydia was going to be there, so he went.

The music is obnoxiously loud and he had ditched Scott and Derek almost as soon as they arrived, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. He was too busy looking for Lydia. By the time he found her, she was too busy talking to one of her friends to give him the time of day. Eventually, he gives up.

He turns around and Derek is on the couch, talking to some blonde girl. Even in the dark lighting of the house, he can see how terrified Derek looks.  The blonde girl is looking at him like he’s delusional, then she leaves. Stiles walks over to Derek and pulls him to his feet and drags him out of the house.  

Almost as soon as they get outside, Derek falls to his knees, then onto his back, lying on the grass. He’s breathing heavy, so Stiles leaves some space between the two of them when he lays down next to Derek.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“She asked if I wanted to go home with her and I panicked.”

“That’s understandable,” Stiles replies. “Hell, if someone asked me to go home with them, I’d probably panic too.”

Stiles always knew that he liked girls. He was 14 when he realized that he liked boys too, Scott is the only one who knows so far. He’s certain that his parents won’t care about him being bisexual, but still, the thought of telling them freaks him out.  

Once he starts shiver from the cold air, he decides to get up, saying: “Alright, I’m freezing, let’s get out of here. You want to play COD?”

*

_Twenty minutes. Twenty more minutes until Game of Thrones is on._

Stiles is the kitchen, polishing off the last of the left overs, when the doorbell rings. He finds Derek on the other side of the door, his face bleeding.

“Hey, I- oh my god, you’re bleeding! What happened?”

“M’head hurts.” Derek says. He stumbles inside, not making it more than a few feet in before his legs give up and he falls to the floor.

“Derek? Derek can you hear me?” he asks, holding Derek’s face in his hands. Silence. “Mom? Mom, call an ambulance something happened to Derek!”

Ten minutes later, a handful of EMT’s are wheeling Derek out of his house on a gurney. He’s still unconscious, and Stiles worries that something seriously bad has happened to him. He can’t ride along in the ambulance, but his mom offers to drive him to the hospital. He doesn’t realize that his hands are shaking until after he’s in his mom’s car. She keeps giving him sideway glances from the front seat and it makes him more nervous than he already is.

When they arrive at the Emergency Room, the Sheriff is there. Stiles can’t help but run to him, hugging him tightly. He hugs him back then says:

“He’s fine, kiddo. Derek is going to be just fine.”

*

It’s another few hours before he’s allowed to go in and see Derek, and Stiles is a nervous wreck the entire time. When he’s finally able to go in, it’s nearly midnight and his father goes in with him. The first thing he does is sit down next to Derek, taking his right hand in his own, giving it a small squeeze.

“I made a phone call down to the station,” the Sheriff says, “They’re sending a few deputy’s over to Derek’s uncle’s house. By the looks of this, he’s got some explaining to do.”

“Yeah.” Stiles mumbles. “Guess so.”

“Hey, kid, you know that this wasn’t your fault. There’s nothing you could have done to stop this. Some people… they just have shit luck, you know?”

“I think it’s a little more than shit luck though, dad.” He takes a deep breath, preparing himself for what he’s about to say. “His family died in a fire about a year ago. He moved in with his uncle and his uncle’s girlfriend a little while after that. The first time that he came into the café, he needed somewhere to hide. I thought that something was going on, but…he said he had things taken care of, so I believed him.”

“What things?”

“Things with Kate, his uncle’s girlfriend.”

A groan from next to him stops Stiles from saying anything else, so he gripped Derek’s hand tighter than before. Derek opens his eyes, squinting under the fluorescent lights. He half hears his father say something about getting a nurse before Derek’s green eyes meet his, he nearly melts.

“Derek?”

“Hi.” He says weakly.

“Hi, oh my god, hi. You scared the shit out of me, you bastard, don’t ever do that to me again.” Stiles says in a rush. “How’re you feeling? Wait- never mind, don’t answer that, that’s a stupid question. You probably feel awful.”

“I’ve definitely been better.” He shifts slightly, and winces at the movement, he tightens his grip on Stiles’ hand.

“Sorry,” Stiles tells him. “I should have warned you, that psycho bitch cracked a few of your ribs. It’ll hurt to do just about everything for a while. You’re going to have to stay overnight for a day or two, but you’ll be just fine.”

He watches Derek nod, blinking heavily. It happens a few more times before his hand goes limp where it’s still intertwined with Stiles’. Stiles pushes Derek’s hair away from his forehead as he slips back under.

“Get some rest, Derek…I’m so glad that you’re okay.”

He knows that it falls on deaf ears, that no one heard it, but he needed to know that he said it.

* 

The next day brought a lot of questions, most of them from the Sheriff and various nurses. As much as he wanted to, Stiles couldn’t be in the room while Derek was being questioned. Yet, as soon as it ended he was right back at Derek’s side. A baseball game was on, neither of them really paying much attention to it. Stiles spoke in the middle of a pitch, having remembered the news his dad had given him earlier.

“You remember Scott’s mom, Melissa?” he asked. Derek nodded. “Well, as it turns out, she has her license to foster. So, Dad has arranged for you to live with Scott and his mom for the time being. That way, you don’t have to change schools and we can still see each other all of the time. In fact, you might see me even more.”

Derek gives him the widest smile he’s ever seen, like it’s the best news he could have ever gotten. Later, after the game is over, they’re watching a movie when Melissa walked in.

“Alright boys, time’s up, visiting hours are over.”

Derek whined audibly, and Stiles gave his hand a squeeze.

“Just a little bit longer, Melissa? Please?”

The woman sighed, then gave the boys a small smile. “You have two minutes, then I’m kicking you out.”

After Melissa left, Derek leaned his head on Stiles’ shoulder. “I wish you didn’t have to go.” He mumbled.

“I know,” Stiles replied, turning to look at him. “I wish I didn’t have to go either. But I’ll be here first thing tomorrow morning, and I promise to drive you to Scott’s after you get checked out of this shit hole. Then we can spend the whole day together, okay?”

Derek nods, then gets to his feet. Before he leaves, he turns back to Derek and says:

“I’m really glad that I met you, Derek. You mean a lot to me.”

He’s not entirely sure why he said it. but he’s glad that he did.

*

The next day, Stiles is there just like he promised, his parents along with him. Derek smiled at the three of them, and gave Stiles a small hug. They walked towards the exit, then came to a halt when they heard the yelling.

“He’s my nephew, you can’t keep him from me! He’s my family!”

The reach the doors, and two security guards are trying to keep Peter from storming into the hospital. Stiles clenches his hands into fists, wanting nothing more than to knock Peter on his ass for hurting Derek.

Peter finally notices them standing there. “Derek, Derek come on, don’t be ridiculous. Come with me, we’re going home.” 

Derek reaches for Stiles, and he is quick to take his hand and pull him away from the chaos, leaving his father to deal with Peter. The two of them don’t stop moving until they’re at Stiles’ jeep. It’s not until Derek gets into the front seat that Stiles realizes how much Derek is struggling to breathe. Pulling in ragged breaths, panic evident on his face, Stiles knows this all too well.

Standing outside of the jeep with the door open, placing a gentle hand on Derek’s face, he does the only thing he can think of: “Hey, hey Derek look at me, you need to breathe. You’re okay, you don’t have to go with him. I promise, you’re safe, please just breathe for me.”

Derek makes a noise that sounds like a sob and he sags into Stiles’ chest. Stiles wraps a loose arm around Derek’s waist, keeping a hand on his face. He lets Derek cry quietly for a few minutes before pulling away. Grabbing his chin gently, he meets Derek’s eyes before saying:

“He won’t take you away from me, alright? I won’t let either one of them hurt you again.”

Derek nods at him, giving him a sad look before they pull out of the parking lot.

* 

Derek has been at the McCall house for a week now, and Stiles has been there every night without fail. Just as well, a night hasn’t gone by without Derek having a nightmare. He never says what they’re about, but Stiles can tell that they are bad.

Tonight is just like every other night, Stiles wakes up to the sound of Derek whining in his sleep, gripping at the sheets like it’ll protect him. He places a hand on his shoulder.

“Derek,” his whispers, “Derek, it’s okay, it’s just a dream.”

He barely has time to finish his statement before Derek is pitching forward, waking up with a gasp. Stiles is quick to get his arms around his shoulders, letting him know that’s he’s safe, that no one will hurt him here. It takes a minute, but Derek finally gains his awareness back; when Stiles looks up, Scott and Melissa are in the doorway, hovering warily.

  Derek turns into Stiles grip and lets the boy hold him. Stiles holds him with the same amount of gentleness that he had the day he learned about Derek’s family situation. After a while, Scott and Melissa go back to bed, leaving Stiles and Derek alone with each other. They lie back on Derek’s bed, side by side next to each other.

“I miss my mom,” Derek says. “I wish my family was here.”

“I know, for your sake, I wish that they were here too. I wish I could have met them.”

“Yeah, I wish you could have met them too.” They don’t say much else after that, and before they know it, both of them are asleep.

* 

It’s takes time, but Derek gets better, Stiles is there to help him. There had been one day, where Stiles and Scott were in the kitchen, shooting the shit about god knows what while Derek was in the shower. Then, Scott said something Stiles doesn’t think he’ll ever forget.

“Watching you two interact with each other, it’s like watching you fall for Lydia all over again, except this time it’s Derek. Its way better, because he’s looking at you the same way that you’re looking at him.”

* 

Derek shows up at Stiles house one weekend afternoon while he’s doing homework.

“Hey, I didn’t know you were coming over. What’s up?”

Derek sits in the center of the room, gesturing for Stiles to join him on the floor. They sit back to back, and Derek takes a deep breath before starting.

“I need to tell you something.”

“Derek-.”

“No,” he interrupts. “I’m going to have to tell somebody about it eventually, so I might as well start now. Stiles, I trust you more than anyone else in the world, please I want to do this. I need to, just _please_. I have to tell someone.”

“Okay.” Stiles whispers. “Go ahead.”

Derek starts speaking, spilling out the story of how it all started and my god _it’s awful_. Stiles can barely stomach it, but he keeps listening, because he knows how much Derek needs. He knows that his friend, his favorite person in the world practically, he needs this. So, he keeps listening, crying a little when Derek starts talking about the awful things she told him.

“Then she started hitting me for no reason, and she would degrade me every chance that she got. I didn’t understand why she was doing it, but I wasn’t sure of how to make her stop either. I wanted to tell you. There were so many times that I thought about telling you, but I didn’t know how to. You know that day that I came into the café?”

“Yeah.” Stiles said, willing his voice not to fail him.

“Kate had come home early from work. Peter wasn’t there and I was terrified that she would try and do something to me. I was climbing out of my bedroom window when the door opened. She yelled for me, but I just ran. I kept running until I couldn’t anymore. Then I ended up in the café and…well you know the story from there.”

Stiles feels Derek sigh heavily, then, he turns and faces Derek, taking one of his hands in both of his own.

“Thank you for trusting me with this.” Stiles says with nothing but sincerity. Derek nods, and Stiles kisses his cheek.

He’s not completely sure why his does, but it feels so right that all he can do afterwards is smile at Derek.

* 

Stiles realizes something one afternoon while Derek and himself are doing homework; he can’t stop himself from speaking.

 “You know that what Kate did wasn’t your fault right?”

Derek looks up from his homework, a surprised look settling across his face, and he nods.

“Say it. Say: What Kate did was not my fault.” Stiles pushes.

Derek opens his mouth and no words come out. He looks like someone ripped out his tongue and then decided to taunt him with it. Stiles laces their fingers together, then says:

“It’s okay, we can work on that.”

* 

A few weeks later, they’re lying together in Stiles’ room when Derek says:

“What Kate did was not my fault.”

“Do you really believe that?” Stiles asks.

Derek shakes his head, looking defeated.

“It’s okay. We can work on that, too.”

* 

One day, much, much later, Stiles comes home from work and Derek is waiting for him, because that’s their life now. They live together, it’s so domestic that Scott still likes to give the two of them shit about it when he comes over, but they don’t care. They’re happy, they have each other and for now that’s all they need.

“Hey, how was wo-.”

Derek cuts him off. “What Kate did was not my fault.”

Stiles just stares at him for a long moment, processing the words. Then he’s grinning just as big as Derek is, throwing his arms around him and Stiles kisses him square on the mouth. It’s not the first time that they have kissed, but it feels just as good, just as special. Both of them cry just a little bit, and Stiles can’t help but thank whoever is watching out for him, he thanks them that he is lucky enough to have all of this.

**Author's Note:**

> The original story has gotten an overwhelmingly good response, so I decided to write a companion fic. Thanks to everyone who read, gaves a kudos, or commented on the original story that I posted last Februrary, I hope you liked this one just as much. Please tell me what y'all think of this, have a great day.


End file.
